"All this has happened before, and all this will happen again."
The Book of Pythia, Sacred Scrolls

Ominous sign for Assad; if Iran is having doubts about security in Damascus, then why would Russia reallocate scarce resources to prop a losing proposition?

Not an allegory: the statue is as hollow as the regime

A study in how an entire community is demographically depleted.

Assad was never but the appendix of a Russian-Iranian attempt to check American influence. When the masters are in dire straits, the servants are the first to foot the bill.